Open Educational Thinkering

More on the web as the platform

Earlier this year I wrote about my attempts to move to a web-based workflow. I discussed how people tend to see devices that rely entirely on the web as for other people.

Last week I moved house. We don’t get broadband until tomorrow so I’ve had to go about my web-based job by hopping between dongles and tethered devices. On top of this, I decided to run an experiment. Rather than using my MacBook Pro as usual, I opted to use a Chromebox connected to a 24-inch display, wireless keyboard and mouse.

So instead of picking up my MacBook Pro every time I ran into an issue, I decided to use the difficulty:

I bought a webcam that doesn’t need drivers and works with the Chromebox

When I needed to use Vidyo or Skype to talk to my colleagues I used the Android app

What surprised me was just how easy it all was. No need to update apps. No perceptible slowdowns. No spinning beachball of death. Everything I needed to do as part of my current job was possible by using the web.